After a long-fought campaign, Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment (MGE) has won the right to build and operate a lavish integrated resort at a 200-hectare (495-acre) abandoned airport in Athens, Greece.
Its rival, Hard Rock International, is within its right to appeal the choice, but it looks like the runway is clear for the Connecticut-based Mohegans to begin site work at the former Hellinikon International Airport. Its local partner in the project is Greek construction company Gek Terna.
In the final round of bidding, the Hellenic Gaming Commission (HGC) eliminated Hard Rock, which is owned by the Seminole tribe of Florida, because it reportedly failed to include financing details in its proposal. Hard Rock had 10 days to contest the decision and has promised to do so.
In a statement sent to GGB News, Hard Rock said, “While we are disappointed by this news, we are more disappointed in the process. Hard Rock firmly believes it was wrongly disqualified based on an inaccurate rationale and a clear conflict of interest. Hard Rock engaged its legal counsel in Greece and has retained counsel in Brussels to review the matter.”
Hard Rock further stated, “The law firm advising the Hellinikon IRC Tender Committee and the Hellenic Gaming Commission on our disqualification has also represented a member of the competing bidder since 2008. Hard Rock put forward to the Committee serious deficiencies in our competitor’s submission, including its failure to notify the Committee of one of its member’s participation in a price-fixing cartel, which we were advised should have led to their disqualification.”
It concluded, “Hard Rock will take the necessary actions to protect the Company and its Brand from unfair and improper practices both in Greece and with the European Commission. The Company’s goal is to see that a fair process for the tender is completed and that the technical and financial sections of the submission are opened for both parties to ensure a transparent outcome.”
At stake is a central role in what will be Greece’s biggest project, an €8 billion (US$8.86 billion) development.
Redevelopment of the property has been stalled since the airport shut down in 2001. The abandoned site is now weed-choked and decrepit, but enviably located on the blue waters of the Athenian Riviera. According to the website of Lambda Development, a key part of the total complex, the Hellinikon Urban Development Project will create “a world-class Metropolitan Park covering an area of 2,000,000 square meters (almost 500 acres)” that will “combine the area’s natural beauty and unique inherent characteristics with landmark buildings and state-of-the-art infrastructure.”
The investment will include residential communities, hotels, shopping centers, family entertainment venues, museums and cultural venues, health and wellness centers, significant space for sports and recreation, a modern business park and a total regeneration of the existing marina.
It’s expected to create 10,000 permanent jobs during the construction period and 75,000 jobs at maturity.
Prime Minister and New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis has made the project a keystone of his administration, which was stalled during the four-year reign of the radical left SYRIZA Party, which opposed foreign investment in the country.
The proposed resort, under MGE’s Inspire brand, will feature a luxury hotel, several entertainment venues, a convention center, retail shops, restaurants and a casino with 120 table games and 1,200 table slot machines.
Mohegan Gaming CEO Mario Kontomerkos hailed the project, saying, “It’s our hope that Inspire Athens would be the catalyst that sparks the entire development of the Hellenikon area into the coveted Athenian Riviera, forever redefining the modern identity of Greece.”
Lamda CEO Odysseas Athanasiou has said the project could add up to 2 percent to Greece’s gross domestic product, and MGE adds that inspire could grow tourism in the Athens area by 10 percent.
“The goal remains to have bulldozers at Hellinikon in early 2020,” Development Minister Adonis Georgiadis said last month.
Inspire was designed by international architectural firm Steelman Partners; the exterior design aesthetic, while emphatically contemporary, is said to be informed by the buildings and sculptures of ancient Athens.
In a news release distributed last October, when MGE first shared renderings of the dramatic, twin-towered resort, it said Inspire’s “state-of-the-art meeting facilities… will reposition Athens as the preferred MICE destination.” The resort will offer “a multi-purpose indoor event space, and sprawling resort pools, marrying world-class luxury hospitality and ceaseless entertainment in a way that’s never before been seen in the south of Europe.
“Much of the resort was designed to capitalize on the Greek affinity for the outdoors where virtually all the resort’s restaurants, bars, lounges, and nightclubs offer both indoor and outdoor experiences,” the release continued. “The collection of food, beverage and retail outlets includes internationally-recognized brands as well as domestic favorites that accentuate traditional Greek dining, drinking, and shopping. Inspire Athens intends to be southern Europe’s center for A-list music concerts, theatrical performances, major sporting events, and other arts and cultural activities on a weekly basis.”
MGE is also constructing an Inpire-branded resort in Incheon, South Korea, near Incheon International Airport. That ambitious project will cost $1.6 billion for Phase I alone, and at total build out, represent an investment of about $5 billion. Inspire Incheon will feature a foreigner-only casino with 150 table games and 700 slot machines. The complex will offer 1,250 five-star hotel rooms, 15,000-seat arena, spa, numerous restaurants and retail shops, and 204,000 square feet of convention space. It is expected to open in 2021.
